


Three's a Crowd

by cocinerosyco



Series: First Impressions [3]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, Meeting the Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-12 22:14:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28517733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cocinerosyco/pseuds/cocinerosyco
Summary: Sequel to Second Thoughts. Guess who's coming to dinner?
Relationships: Rodney McKay/John Sheppard
Series: First Impressions [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2089008
Comments: 2
Kudos: 43





	Three's a Crowd

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for my friend Lisa and posted to LiveJournal in 2010 (possibly 2011). Apologies for the odd formatting and double spaces after the periods.

John was going through paperwork when Adele buzzed him from her desk. 

"Yes?"

"Mr. Sheppard, your 4:00 is here."

John glanced around his desk, looking for any evidence - possibly buried in the mound of paperwork - that would indicate he had any previous knowledge of this appointment. Trying to recall anything, he asked Adele for a name.

She knew exactly what his game was though, and gave him more than he'd asked for. "It's a Ms. Miller from CER Worldwide."

Oh, right. Instructing Adele to send her in, he spent a few moments trying to clear off the documents littering his desk. Maybe it was time to hand over more of the paperwork to his VP of Research. Lord knows he could handle it, and John had already promised to handle Rodney's documentation, e-mails, complaints, phone calls, and demands, so it wasn't like Evan even had anything incredibly difficult to deal with. The rest of the company was a piece of cake if you took Dr. McKay, super genius extraordinaire out of the equation. Besides, Rodney's stuff was always pure entertainment and no way was John passing that along to anyone.

His office door opened, and John stood. This meeting had only been scheduled the week before and frankly, John had tried to put it out of his mind. DJS was already doing more than was required when you looked at environmental sustainability and corporate responsibility. Being attacked in person, in his own office, for something that wasn't his fault didn't sound very appealing. He held out his hand to the woman walking purposefully in his direction.

"Ms. Miller, correct?" He smiled, figuring a little charm never hurt anything.

"Dr. Miller, please." Her handshake was brisk and her tone was polite. John didn't think the charm was going to work with this one. He nodded at her and introduced himself, more out of politeness than anything. Clearly she knew who he was.

John indicated that she should take a seat, and offered her coffee or water. She politely declined both. Dr. Miller looked to be in her mid-30s. Her long, curly hair was loose around her shoulders, and she leaned forward in her seat in a way that felt familiar to John. John leaned back in his chair. "What can I do for you today, Dr. Miller?"

"As you know, Mr. Sheppard, CER is looking to make corporate policies regarding government contracts more transparent, especially when potential environmental impact implications exist."

John nodded, to confirm that he did, in fact, know what CER did.

"With that in mind," she continued, "we are curious as to why you have not made public the materials that you currently use for the CARL technology being used by the military."

"Dr. Miller, I don't think -" John was cut off by an impatient hand slicing through the air.

"With all due respect, this company has been dragging its heels in these matters, and you owe -" John cut her off in turn.

"Excuse me, Dr. Miller." He stopped, until he was sure she was listening. "First of all, I have informed all relevant government entities and persons of the materials we use in production of the CARL technology. I'm not required to do anything further, especially since there are matters of national security to consider. Secondly, DJS does a hell of a lot more than most companies." John was starting to feel a little heated. "So we'd appreciate it if you'd get off our backs on this particular cause. I don't think that's too much to ask," he drawled. He was suddenly glad he'd saved this meeting for the end of the day.

"Mr. Sheppard, your company owes it to the public to inform them of what you are using in the products you make. When they are putting their sons and daughters on the line for this country, they deserve to know if that technology is going to cause cancer in a few years."

John sighed. Nothing in the CARL tech would cause cancer; Rodney knew the materials inside and out. Even if said materials were acquired through unknown and unorthodox means, doesn't mean they weren't thoroughly tested. Ethics among companies of this echelon were sometimes lacking, but not John's. It was offensive to him that the woman across from him was assuming so.

"The government is satisfied that nothing in the devices would cause any danger other than normal wear," John stated. "And that's all you should need to hear."

Dr. Miller's face flushed. "You and I both know that the government wouldn't admit anything if we weren't pushing them to do so."

"Well, Dr. Miller, that's between you and the government." John stood up, wordlessly showing her that in his opinion, the meeting was concluded.

She was about to speak up again, argument ready on her lips, when something beeped. John glanced around his desk, wondering what he would have left on. He had picked up a handful of papers to glance under them when Dr. Miller spoke up.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said, embarrassed.

John glanced at her. She was holding her cell phone in front of her, looking mortified that she'd left it on in a business meeting.

"Problem?" he asked. 

"No," she replied, briskly. "Just my brother returning my call. Again, my apologies for leaving it on."

"Well Dr. Miller, I hope that this meeting hasn't proved to be a total waste of your time." Like it was for John.

"We will be taking up this issue with the DoD, and we won't forget your reluctance to provide the public with the knowledge they deserve." John got the idea that she as trying to sound threatening, but somehow, it didn't work. Maybe that's because he saw Rodney threaten his staff with emotional and psychological pain and embarrassment at least three times a week. Dr. Miller wasn't *bad*, but she wasn't exactly making him fearful for his career or position.

John reached out across the desk and shook her hand. "Well, good luck with that," he told her sincerely. She narrowed her eyes at him, trying to figure out whether he was making fun of her. He just smiled blandly in response as he pressed the button to summon Adele. His assistant entered the room and held the door open expectantly, waiting for Dr. Miller to precede her. "Have a good day, Dr. Miller."

She just nodded in response. "Mr. Sheppard." And with that, she turned and walked out of his office. Adele was about to follow her out when John's call stopped her.

"Hey, let's not schedule appointments with them again, alright?" he said conspiratorially, keeping his voice low.

Adele just nodded at him and rolled her eyes, closing the door behind her.

John slumped down into his chair with a long sigh. Glancing at his watch, he noted that it was quitting time for him and started to make a last ditch effort to organize his desk. He was leaving a note for himself to talk to Evan at the next opportunity when his phone rang. "Sheppard."

"John-"

"Hey Rodney," John smiled as he finished up the note and gave his partner his full attention. "I was about to call you. I'm heading out. You staying late or are you going to be home for dinner?"

"Uh, I'm leaving now," Rodney replied, distractedly.

"Something wrong?"

"No?"

John rose his eyebrow. "Alright, what's up?"

Rodney muttered to himself for a minute, something about being tricked, before he said "Look, just don't hate me, okay? I didn't know what she wanted the information for - okay, I thought maybe she was going to send me something, or maybe she was getting her Christmas cards ready early - although, it's pretty early for Christmas cards, but it seems like a Jeannie thing to do, and -"

"Rodney."

Rodney took a deep breath. "I accidentally gave my sister our address."

John cocked his head to the side. "And that's a problem because?"

"She's visiting for the weekend. She just _invited_ herself over," he finished, dejectedly.

John shrugged and starting packing up this laptop. Even if they had a houseguest, he'd probably end up working on something during the weekend. "Still not seeing the problem here, Rodney." A thought occurred to him suddenly. "Unless, did you not tell her about us?"

"Well, no, but that's not the reason why this is a bad, bad thing." John could almost see Rodney's hand batting through the air, narrowly missing the ever present mug of coffee sitting on his desk. "The real problem is that Jeannie is insufferable. She always thinks she's right, she argues with me over everything, even physics, which, I mean, come on, who is the physics expert in this family?"

"I'm guessing you are," John commented, fondly.

"Of course I am. She could have done as well, I'll give her that much. Her brain's not as powerful as mine - whose is? - but she would have made a great physicist. But what did she do instead?"

John sensed that this conversation was moving into Rodney McKay storytime and sat back in his chair.

"Did she become an English teacher?" he guessed, turning his swivel chair back and forth. He stared at the ceiling, trying to make pictures from the shadows there.

Rodney scoffed. "No, but she married one. She got married, and knocked up, and got a degree in environmental science." This last part was said in total disgust, as if environmental science degrees were something handed out to people who couldn't get hired at a McDonald's.

"I don't know, Rodney," John began. "She seems like she'd be a nice person. What's the harm in having her over for the weekend? I'd love to meet your sister." John was being mostly honest; it was only partly said to wind Rodney up.

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line. "See, now I'm doubting your intelligence," Rodney said flatly.

John laughed. "See you at home, dear."

Rodney grumbled and hung up the phone, prompting another bark of laughter from John. He grabbed his bag and his keys and headed out the door, in a much better mood than a half hour before.

~

John came in from the garage to find Rodney staring moodily at the coffee pot. He couldn't believe a visit from Rodney's sister would put him in such a bad mood. Now he felt a little bit sorry for teasing Rodney about it. Setting his bag down on the kitchen table, he walked behind Rodney and wrapped his arms around his partner. John felt Rodney relax a little as he pressed his lips into the back of Rodney's neck. "How many cups have you had today?" he murmured.

"Only seven," Rodney complained. John was surprised that Rodney wasn't actually vibrating with that much caffeine consumption.

"Okay, well." John put his chin on Rodney's shoulder. "Just this one, on account of your extreme hardship here-"

Rodney turned to give him a withering glare, and John had to try hard not to laugh.

"But then no more coffee for you," he finished.

"Mer?" A female voice sounded in the doorway.

John backed up, letting his arms drop from around Rodney and turned to greet Rodney's sister. Hopefully the fact that Rodney was living with another man wouldn't prove to be a shock to this woman. John drew hope from the fact that Rodney had seemed unconcerned about it. Whatever reaction he was expecting from Rodney's sister though, he definitely wasn't expecting her to be the woman he'd just met that afternoon.

"Dr. Miller," John said, surprised.

"You," she replied, shocked. She seemed to quickly realize that she sounded a bit rude, because she rapidly followed up with "I mean, Mr. Sheppard."

"John," he corrected. Being called Mr. Sheppard seemed odd in his own home.

Rodney took a moment to catch up with them. "Wait. You know each other?" He turned to John. "When did that happen?" he demanded. "And why didn't you tell me?"

"Mer, I didn't know you were-" She gestured at John. John didn't know if she was indicating his gender or his status as a business mogul. Wait.

"Mer?" John asked, glancing between Dr. Milller and Rodney.

"It's his name," Dr. Miller answered.

John raised his eyebrows at Rodney, as if to ask 'Really?'

Rodney glared at his sister. "A name that I didn't want, and I'd remind you to call me Rodney, like I've asked at least a thousand times." Then, for good measure, he glared at John. "When did you meet Jeannie?"

"This afternoon," John replied. "We had a meeting. It was riveting stuff."

Jeannie looked at him like he'd grown an extra head. Okay, so it wasn't a great meeting, but John was finding this whole situation very entertaining and he was willing to forget the meeting in order to get to know Jeannie. He took a look at Rodney, who was eyeing him balefully, and turned to Jeannie, who was still wearing confusion all over her face. Making a command decision, he clapped his hands together. "Let's start over," he suggested. He reached out a hand to Jeannie. "John Sheppard."

She shook, and said "Mer's...?"

"Boyfriend," he confirmed. He'd only admit it to himself, but he got a tingly feeling every time he got to tell someone that. A sure sign of Rodney induced insanity, he was positive.

She nodded. "Jeannie Miller."

"Pleasure to meet you, Jeannie." He smiled, trying on the charm one more time.

She smiled back at him. "Likewise."

Rodney made a huffing noise behind them. When John and Jeannie turned to look at him, he crossed his arms and said snappishly, "Yes, still here." 

John smiled at him, before turning back to Jeannie. "So, Mer?"

He ignored Rodney's squawk of indignation behind him and sat down to have a nice long discussion with Jeannie. Rodney'd get over it, besides, this was a golden opportunity to learn more about his partner. And John had ways of, uh, making up later, should it become necessary.


End file.
